been that morning. He was additionally disturbed
because the Doctor had gone early to Port Lannoch; and as he was the only
person with whom he could talk, he clung to him with something of the
helpless feeling of a frightened child to its nurse.

The day being full of sunshine the window was open, and only the dark-
green blind which crackled and rustled with every passing breeze made the
darkness of the room. Harold was dressed and lay on a sofa placed back
in the room, where the few rays of light thus entering could not reach
him. His eyes and forehead were bandaged as ever. For some days the
Doctor, who had his own reasons and his own purpose, had not taken them
off; so the feeling of blind helplessness was doubly upon him. He knew
he was blind; and he knew also that if he were not he could not in his
present condition see.

All at once he started up awake. His hearing had in the weeks of
darkness grown abnormally acute, and some trifling sound had recalled him
to himself. It might have been inspiration, but he seemed to be
conscious of some presence in the room.

As he rose from the sofa, with the violent motion of a strong man
startled into unconscious activity, he sent a shock of fear to the eager
child who had strayed into the room through the open window. Had he
presented a normal appearance, she would not have been frightened. She
would have recognised his identity despite the changes, and have sprung
to him so impulsively that she would have been in his arms before she had
time to think. But now all she saw was a great beard topped with a mass
of linen and lint, which obscured all the rest of the face and seemed in
the gloom like a gigantic and ominous turban.

In her fright she screamed out. He in turn, forgetful for the moment of
his intention of silence, called aloud:

'Who is that?' Pearl, who had been instinctively backing towards the
window by which she had entered, and whose thoughts in her fright had
gone back to her mother--refuge in time of danger--cried out:

'Mother, Mother! It is him! It is The Man!' She would have run towards
him in spite of his forbidding appearance; but the shock had been too
much for her. The little knees trembled and gave way; the brain reeled;
and with a moan she sank on the floor in a swoon.

Harold knew the voice the instant she spoke; there was no need for the
enlightening words

'Pearl! Pearl!' he cried. 'Come to me, darling!' But as he spoke